Help Me Legolas
by Stormyskies89
Summary: A human raised by Elves. Not Estel, his youngest daughter, Elanor. And when she grows up she's not keen on returing to Gondor, can her father see it?


**Disclaimer: **I do not own LOTR. Never have.

**A/N: **NO FLAMES! Not accepted.

* * *

"Legolas, you have to help me." It was almost comical, seeing the High King of Gondor almost begging on his knees to his Elven friend.

"What made you think of me Estel? Why not your father?" Prince Legolas asked, he hated wearing his circlet but when visiting Gondor as 'Prince Legolas', he had to wear it.

"Elrond is three weeks from sailing to the Valinor." Aragorn replied.

"What of your brothers?" Legolas asked, Aragorn raised an eyebrow.

"Dan and Ro? Would _you_ leave your daughter with them?" He posed the question back at Legolas who looked thoughtful then gave a small shudder.

"I see your point. But why me?" He asked again looking up at Aragorn.

"You are the only person I trust enough and I'm sure Arwen would have agreed." Aragorn said, Legolas felt bad now. Here he was refusing almost outright to take the Princess from her home, even if her father was struggling to raise his son, Eldarion, and 2-year-old daughter, Maranwë. It was clear Aragorn could not raise a baby from only 3 weeks old. So his friend pulled the 'help your kin' trick on him. Even if Arwen had chosen to live as a mortal, she still had elven heritage and Legolas would have always considered her his kin.

"Fine, Estel. If it would have been the Lady Arwen's wish that, should she pass on, I would look after her daughter until she is ready to return to Gondor, I will raise the Princess. But she will live as Princess of Mirkwood." He said, Aragorn nodded.

"But she will in your heart remain," Legolas cut the King off.

"As your daughter and only my ward. Yes Estel." He replied replying to the King's smile with one of his own.

* * *

**6 Years Later**

"Ada!" Legolas looked up from where he sat behind his Father's old Mahogany desk to see his Foster daughter, Elanor, running into his study. He put down his quill and let her jump into his arms. Legolas had looked after Elanor with the help of the maids of his Father's kingdom to raise her in the ways of the elves, as the Elves here in Mirkwood knew no different to how they were raised, so they could not raise her in the ways of Men. It pained Legolas to know that his daughter wasn't 'his' she was being raised as his illegitimate offspring. Legolas now knew of the connection Elrond had felt to Estel when he had lived with them and was raised as a son of Elrond. It was late, Legolas realized and he'd forgotten to see his daughter to bed. That must have been why she was here. He always took the child to her chambers and said goodnight to her, Elanor, since she was babe had found it hard to sleep had her father not left his unique Elf scent on her pillow. Which he left just by letting his hair brush the cotton pillow. It helped her sleep. He was happy to leave his scent on all her bed clothes if it helped. He carried his daughter down to her chambers Elanor had snuggled into his shoulder.

"Goodnight Tithen pen." He said as he gently placed a kiss on her forehead.

"Goodnight Ada. Le melon." She whispered.

"And I you, Meleth." He replied. Closing her bedroom door behind himself as he left, he beckoned one of his old friends, Raniean to him. Raniean had been a sentinel in the Mirkwood palace for as long as Legolas could remember. The Sentinel usually stood guard for the Prince or Princess so it was his job to stand outside Elanor's door and make sure no one except the maids entered her room. He was only allowed in with an invitation.

"You know what to do." Raniean nodded. He had been given the _very _important task of guarding the Princess' door. He wasn't just guarding the Princess but the Princess' secrets. That she wasn't Legolas' at all and that she had a secret her biological father didn't even know about.

* * *

"Ada?" Legolas knew who it was the door opened he didn't need to look up at her.

"Elanor, I'm busy." He said not looking up from the map in front of him. But Elanor ignored him; she instead pulled herself up into his lap and looked down at the map as well.

"What is it?" She asked. Legolas sighed and rolled his eyes.

"It's a map El. It's of a place called The Shire. Near to the Grey Havens. I have some friends who live there." He told her, she turned to look at him, Legolas lifted her up so she was sitting on the desk.

"Friends?" She frowned.

"Yes, they are about as big as you are. They are called Hobbits. Or Halflings you may have heard the maids talk of them." He said, she nodded slowly.

"Tancave, Ada! But…why are you friends with them? They are said to be dirty creatures." Legolas supressed and chuckle.

"They are quite dirty beings, yes El. But they are also some of the friendliest beasts in all Middle-Earth. Much friendlier then Dwarves are." He said, she frowned.

"But Ada! You are also friends with Mister Gimli!" She said, he laughed.

"He is the friendliest Dwarf I have met Tithen Pen. He is the most noble of Dwarves. We did become friends during our time with the Fellowship; you have heard the legend have you not?" Elanor nodded again. She had heard the story of the Halfling, Frodo, and the Ring. She'd heard of how he travelled from Hobbiton in the Shire to Mordor to destroy the One Ring and the quest almost cost him his life. Legolas watched as Elanor traced the word _Gondor_ with her finger.

"Ada? Does your friend Mister Estel live there?" She screwed up her nose at the word 'Estel' she knew it meant Hope, so she did not understand why a man would have that kind of name. But Legolas had explained it to her several times.

"Yes Meleth, that is where Estel is. Why? Do you want to meet him?" Elanor shook her head slowly. No she didn't. Legolas couldn't explain it, but for some reason, he loved this child as if she were his own. He called her his daughter, he called her 'little one' he called her 'love'. He wasn't acting anymore. To Legolas, Elanor was his. Maybe not by blood but he knew exactly what connection Elrond had felt to Aragorn.

Legolas found that he was dreading the fact that at the age of 18 he would tell her who she really was. He didn't want to. He wanted to keep her as his own. He knew it was not what he agreed to and what he had told Estel he would do, but Legolas wanted desperately to keep Elanor. She was every bit the Elven Princess she would be if she was in fact an elf.

Though she wasn't an elf, she acted like one. She acted as if she was just like her Ada, no different. Although she knew she was clumsy and Legolas was graceful and she couldn't do all the things he could but then she was also a girl. The other elflings in Mirkwood hadn't had much interaction with the Princess but not through lack of trying. Legolas knew what Estel had gone through and Legolas knew that Elanor was bound to be teased the same. She was tutored with only a few select Elflings that were the children of sentinels or maids in the palace. Legolas trusted those Elflings to be nice to Elanor and she even rattled on during breakfast about her friends. Legolas only hoped it was the truth.

* * *

Legolas discovered as Elanor grew up that she became worse at lying to him. She'd told him that she had friends in the group she was tutored with when in fact they were just as bad if not worse than the Elflings outside the palace. Legolas would often lose track of his daughter and Raniean would report that Elanor had retreated to the stables. There among the hay bales and squeezed between her horse and the wall, Legolas would find Elanor. She would tell him the truth about the teasing and Legolas would hug her to sooth away her tears. Despite the fact that when she was 16 she said she was being silly and she shouldn't need her father to sooth her tears anymore. Legolas told her that he would continue to look after her until she told him to let her go. Elanor smiled and told him that he never had to let her go, because she wasn't going to go anywhere.

It took Elanor until she was 17 to realise that she wasn't like the other Elflings. She knew she was different from her father, but her ears were the very same, except she aged faster than they did. They grew taller but she knew she was very different. After her History studies on the morning of her 17th birthday she went up to her father's study.

"Ada?" She asked ignoring the rule he'd put up to knock before coming in. Legolas looked up.

"El? What is it?" He noticed the look of frustration and annoyance on her face.

"What am I called?" She demanded; Legolas took the time to look confused.

"What do you mean Meleth?" He asked, Elanor sighed heavily and ran a hand through her hair, her eyes filled with bitterly hot tears.

"What am I Ada? Am I Eldar or Human? Or am I half-breed?" She asked, "most of the elflings down there say that I am not like them. And I know it is true. But why not? If you are not my father," at this point she flicked some of her brown hair over her shoulder, a harsh reminder of who her father was, "then who is my father!" The betrayal that shone in her grey eyes, which matched Aragorn's, made Legolas' heart hurt, not only that but also the sharp tone of hurt that rang in her voice made him close his eyes to her. He sighed and ran a hand over his face.

"I was going to tell you when you turned 18. However, I guess sooner is better than later." He said getting up and getting something out of the drawer beside him. He held it out to her. It was a pendant. It was something she'd heard talk of many times. The Evenstar. Her mother's necklace.

"That is Lady Arwen's Evenstar." She whispered.

"It _was_. Now it is yours. Lady Arwen was your mother…she died shortly after you were born. Your father, King Elessar – or Estel as you know him – asked me to raise you. I told him I would tell you when you turned 18 who you really were, but as you grew up I found that I did not want to burden you so. I love you Elanor. I have always loved you. You are the daughter I never got to have. You are to me, what Estel was to his elven father, Lord Elrond of Rivendell." Elanor stared at Legolas and glanced down at the Evenstar that he had handed to her. She closed her hand around the jewel and her eyes against her 'father'. She turned away and sighed softly.

"So you lied to me. The elflings were right. I do not belong here. I belong with… _my own kind_." Elanor whispered, but Legolas still heard her.

"I _wanted_ to tell you El, I really did. But you have to remember I love you and I always will love you. The same way I would love my own children. You belong with me." Legolas said, Elanor spun around to face him.

"I am not yours and I never was. From the time I was 6 I knew I was different. I wasn't like the others. I may have pointed ears like my mother but I will _never_ be like you." She said sharply. Legolas cringed. She had never spoken to him so sharply.

"Do you want to meet your father?" He asked finally after a long moment of silence. Elanor looked up at him and shook her head slowly.

"My father? Who sent me away from my home? No. I do not want to meet the man who did not love me enough to even try." Elanor snapped.

"He sent you away to Mirkwood because he could not raise a three–week–old Baby to her age of majority. That is why you lived here. Not because he did not love you." Legolas said.

"He did not even try! He just handed me off to you like I was nothing! I have been lied to my whole life and now that I know I am not like you, you tell me more than ever that you love me. I believe that when someone loves you, they do not lie to you. I am sorry Ada. But…I do not belong here." Elanor said. She put the Evenstar back down on her father's desk and strode out of the room. She was late for her studies.

* * *

Legolas began to write to Aragorn to tell him that he had told Elanor of her history but she was not at all rapt in the idea of meeting her father. She seemed to think that Aragorn did not love her. Even if Legolas knew he did. He looked up as the door to his study opened and Elanor rushed in. Legolas only just got to his feet as she wrapped her arms around his neck and stood on her toes to nuzzle into his neck.

"I am so sorry Ada. I am so sorry I yelled at you! I meant none of what I said! Gohero nîn, le melon Ada."

"Le melon El. You are forgiven. I was just about to write to King Elessar – your birth father – and tell him that you were not keen to meet him."

"I believe that even if I am human by birth, I am yours by heart." Elanor said, "And for now I am by all means, Princess of Mirkwood. I believe that if my birth father gave me to his best friend to raise then he believed I was never to be Princess of Gondor. Living under the rule of the King, who I just heard would have been my older brother, Eldarion." Legolas nodded slowly. He knew that Elanor would consider herself Princess of Mirkwood, as she had been for 17 years. She did not want to change who she was just because of the city she lived in. She would now and forever be Princess of Mirkwood. Legolas smiled. She was almost officially his.

* * *

As Aragorn and his children, Prince Eldarion, now 21 and Princess Maranwe, now 19, rode towards Mirkwood they all had different ideas of what young Elanor would look like now at 17. Aragorn knew he'd left it too long to visit her, but he had to see her. To see if she looked anything like her mother. Maranwe and Eldarion took after him, but Elanor, he hoped would look like Arwen. He smiled when the gates to Mirkwood opened in front of him, he reigned his horse to a stop in the courtyard. Two sentinels that Aragorn recognized stood there to greet them.

"Raniean! Trelan! It is wonderful to see you again!" Aragorn said grasping their elbows in greeting.

"Lord Aragorn, it has been too many long years." Trelan said.

"Welcome back to Mirkwood, Lord Aragorn." Raniean said, he snapped his fingers and stables hands appeared to take the three horses to the stables to rest.

"Our King," Trelan paused to cough, as if to cover a snicker, "is waiting to receive you." Aragorn knew that Legolas had hated to be referred to as 'Prince' outside of Mirkwood and no doubt it would be the same for him now to be 'King'.

* * *

Legolas sat behind the large mahogany desk and Elanor fidgeted next to him. She sighed heavily before turning to her father to debate it once more.

"Why do I even have to be here? I have no desire to meet Lord Aragorn." She said as she once more adjusted the circlet on her head.

"You are the Princess. You are to receive the guests also." He said. Legolas would only meet strangers in the Throne room, his office was for familiars. The door opened slowly and Raniean stuck his head in.

"My Lord," He smirked, "Lord Aragorn is here with his children to see you."

"Let them in Raniean and stop laughing." Raniean nodded but bit his lip to stop from snickering as he opened the door wider to let Aragorn. Eldarion and Maranwe into the office. Elanor immediately stopped fidgeting. She stood straighter and Legolas felt a surge of pride in his daughter. She knew her manners. Aragorn moved to greet his old friend but stopped short when he looked at Elanor. When she had left Gondor he had not seen all of her features, in fact she had been taken from the nursery and given to Legolas at Aragorn's orders. Elanor had pointed ears. Long dark hair, the same shade as his and her eyes were grey. Elanor was every bit the Elvish Princess however when Legolas introduced them as he would with any other familiar that didn't know Elanor, she curtsied to the King of men and allowed him to greet her graciously.

"My Lady, may I say you are more radiant than I would have believed." It broke Aragorn's heart to speak to his daughter as such, but he knew he would never have her back. She believed she was Legolas' daughter and he knew she held no reason to want to be his daughter ever again. Once the meet and greet was over, Elanor asked to be excused. In fluent Elvish, Aragorn noticed, his children knew very little. Legolas allowed her to leave and Aragorn watched as she left. His children following soon after.

"She is beautiful is she not?" Legolas said once they were alone.

"She is human though?" Aragorn said, Legolas took a moment to look confused.

"Yes. She believed for years that she was not like me, she knew that. It was just a month ago that I told her who she was. She had no desire to meet with you. She thought you did not love her. She told me that she still has no desire to become the Princess she was born to be." He told the human.

"I thought as much when I saw her as I entered. She is truly yours Legolas." Aragorn said, Legolas felt his friend's pain. Though he was elated that Aragorn saw it.

"I did not wish to keep her, as you will remember. I asked you why you thought I would be better at raising your daughter then you would be." Legolas reminded him. Aragorn smiled, Legolas had questioned his friend's sanity when the human had asked him to look after the young Princess. Aragorn and Legolas had no real business, so their morning was spent going over the years of Elanor growing up here in Mirkwood. Thei morning was interrupted, however, when the door of Legolas' office was thrown open and Elanor ignoring both males went through into her father's chambers and slammed the door shut behind her. Legolas frowned and Aragorn looked utterly confused.

"She needs to talk to me it seems. She would often, as a child, come through my office, whether I was here or not and go into my chambers and sit there and wait til I returned to talk to me. More often as a teenager and it seems this time it may have something to do with your son." Aragorn looked up and saw Eldarion standing in the doorway.

"My apologies, My Lord." He said bowing his head to Legolas, "I fear I have upset Princess Elanor's feelings." The 21-year-old said quietly.

"I understand young Prince. I will talk to her. Excuse me, Aragorn." Legolas got up from his seat and entered his chambers silently.

"He is horrid, Ada! I hate them! Send them home!" Elanor sobbed as Legolas closed the door.

"You know that it would be rude of me to do that to an old friend of mine, El. I cannot do that. But I can promise you that Lord Aragorn is now talking to the young Prince. I am sure Eldarion will be more accepting. You are no longer his sister. Aragorn has said that you and I are too close to be torn apart. He says that I, as your father, will remain as such until such time as you decided what you want to do with your life." Legolas said.

"I am you daughter."

"Yes you are my daughter. And I am happy I did not say no when my old friend said, 'Help me Legolas'." Legolas smiled as Elanor allowed him to wrap her up tightly in his arms and tell her he loved her.


End file.
